The Black Lives Matter movement is relatively old with regards to the short attention span of the internet. Its origins are commonly traced back to 2013, the year George Zimmerman was acquitted of killing Treyvon Martin. 

For the past eight years, the three words pop up on flyers in community centers and flags at protests. They call on the systems in America to do the bare minimum: acknowledge the full humanity of Black people — humanity deprived by history, biases, law enforcement procedures and a lack of justice.

At 4 p.m. Monday, 12 jurors recognized the life of George Floyd had value and ruled the individual responsible as guilty. The long arc of the moral universe bent slightly toward justice — or, as many have pointed out, accountability. 

For those unfamiliar with the nuances of the charges against Derek Chauvin, they are as follows:

• Second-degree unintentional murder — guilty
• Third-degree murder — guilty
• Second-degree manslaughter — guilty

Second-degree unintentional murder means Chauvin unintentionally murdered Floyd while committing a felony — in this case, assault. Third-degree murder states that Chauvin acted recklessly and dangerously “without regard for human life,” resulting in death. The weakest of the three charges with regard to punishment is second-degree manslaughter. Simply put, second-degree manslaughter required proof that Chauvin took unnecessary risks that resulted in Floyd’s death.

Many people who watched the infamous video reached their own, less legal-savvy conclusion: Chauvin unnecessarily killed Floyd. The video sparks emotions of anger, disgust and sorrow. In doing so, it taps into an underrated and fundamental shared human empathy. Most people do not like watching a person die, especially at the hands of another person. 

It should not take the recorded death of a man to elicit this empathy. It is with that thought that we would like to share with you some facts about life. 

Floyd was born to a single mother in North Carolina, and she soon moved the two to Houston in search of work. Floyd was a talented football player in high school, and a teammate remembered calling him “Big Friendly.” Floyd was a father of five. He moved to Minneapolis in 2014. He became more active in church programs, and he got a job working security for a homeless shelter, then worked as a truck driver, then as a bouncer. The pandemic cost him his job. 

All things considered, Floyd’s past, any of it, good and bad, did not matter at the time of his murder. He did not deserve to die. The jurors saw it in the video, and everyone else did, too.

When presented with another person, we all make a series of instantaneous judgments. Often, we unknowingly make these judgements quickly with irrelevant, somewhat useless information like race, clothes or tone of voice. As we learn more about one another, we find more valuable and useful commonalities. We discover shared successes, experiences, interests and failures.

Floyd and the 983 who died at the hands of law enforcement were burdened with the instantaneous judgement and deprived of more patience, of a shared humanity. Chauvin’s defense received over two weeks to communicate with his accusers.

Floyd had about 10 minutes.

Floyd was Black, and while no one on the Iowa State Editorial Board has the authority to comment on the Black experience in America, the cold statistics on American policing are a consensus.

To deny systematic biases in the United States criminal justice system requires the disregard of overwhelming statistics. Last year, 1021 people were shot and killed by law enforcement. Twenty-three percent of those people were Black Americans. The Census reports only 13 percent of people surveyed report as Black or African American. A study by Rutgers University, Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Michigan found that African Americans are around twice as likely to be killed by police as white Americans.

Since 2005, 140 police officers have been arrested for on-duty murder or manslaughter charges. Only seven were convicted of murder. 

The problem of police brutality and its connection to our country’s past has been addressed in the court once, but the killing still continues. 

On April 11, an officer shot and killed 32-year-old Daunte Wright. On Wednesday, police killed Andrew Brown in Jacksonville, Florida. This month alone, 41 people died at the hands of law enforcement. By the time this is published, that number will likely be higher.

The Washington Post made a list of every life ended by those sworn to protect and serve. It reads the person’s name, date of death, cause of death, age, whether the person was armed and whether the person was fleeing.

Police killing is not an inescapable “necessary evil” in all parts of the world. This year, the United States police department killed around 28 out of every 10 million people. Canada: 10 out of 10 million. United Kingdom law enforcement killed three people cumulatively in 2021. Iceland, Denmark and Switzerland law enforcement have yet to kill anyone this year.

An end to death at the hands of police does not necessitate an end to policing altogether. The lower numbers of police killings by other countries support this claim. The United Kingdom, Denmark and Switzerland are not lawless wastelands. The benefits of nonviolence amongst policing is two-fold — not only do we stop our fellow citizens from dying without trial, but we also would not need to imprison police for murder. Nonviolent policing protects two lives.

The theorized solutions to stop police violence are complex and varying. The American Civil Liberties Union recommends laws requiring police to use “the minimum force necessary,” the end of qualified immunity for law enforcement and reinvesting some of police funding into mental health services.

No solution will be perfect, but in our current system, people are dying needlessly. The videos of police violence are not going to end unless action is taken, and the precedent of Chauvin’s conviction is a start in this change. 

Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the Floyd family, reflected on the trial with the statement, “Let this be the precedent where we overcome systematic racism and oppression.”

Former President Barack Obama released a statement that said the jury “did the right thing.” He added, “While today’s verdict may have been a necessary step on the road to progress, it was far from a sufficient one. We cannot rest. We will need to follow through with the concrete reforms that will reduce and ultimately eliminate racial bias in our criminal justice system.”

Will one trial significantly impact policing and discourage excessive force from police? Of course not, but it is something. Systemic racism does not end in one ruling. It requires a process of protest, dialogue and acknowledgement, but without this process, we are denying privilege and justice to many under the cloud of ignorance. 

This case is a rarity. There was video of the event taken by bystanders who then testified in court, and it likely helped the prosecution. These videos were recorded by everyday people. If you see police violence, record it. If you see someone treating another life as worthless, do something. If the policing is done properly, the video will not hurt those who do what is right.